(This entry is cross-posted at Tomorrow’s News, Tomorrow’s Journalists.)

There’s been one major influence in my education as a journalist that overshadows all others, and I’m sure it’s the same for many of us- my college newspaper. Trinity News regularly sweeps the annual national awards in Ireland, and outputs alumni who go on to successful careers in the media. Each year, fifty editors solicit and edit more than half a million words of content from hundreds of contributors for this established fortnightly broadsheet.

My university has no journalism course, yet we produce a superior product to every nearby university I know which does.

It is my belief that a degree does not necessarily make a great journalist. I have never been confronted with a skill I haven’t been able to learn. I can report, research, sub-edit, layout pages, manage staff, and write (teeline) shorthand as fast as my lecturers can speak. I can understand the basics of HTML, CSS, CMS, and I’d like to think I’m up to date in the trends of social media and digital distribution- more so, I’d guess, than many journalism majors. Hell, I’ve even done the theory too, reading books on ethics, books on design, even the AP styleguide. And all I needed was a passion for the subject, a little free time, and somewhere to hone my skills.

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When editing other young journalists’ work, I’m often amazed at the lack of basic knowledge shown by English majors when it comes to news writing. Often, they miss a big part of the story. They shouldn’t, because there’s only six things we need to know:

What, why, when, how, where and who.

These are the things that make up a story. It’s always been so, even back in the days when Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, and wrote the poem:

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who…

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